Fire’s cause under investigation
By Susan Motander
A brush fire broke out on Saturday night in the 500 block of Norumbega Drive. As with the fire in the Ridgeside/Oakglade area just two days before, firefighters were able to control the blaze before any homes were damaged or destroyed. On Sunday Monrovia Fire Chief Brad Dover attributed the success of the fire fighting effort to three factors.
“We have an automatic brush fire response plan in place,” the Chief explained. “There was also a fast response to the incident and we were lucky…there was no wind.”
The fire was called in 7:36 according to Chief Dover. Within 10 minutes Incident Commander, Battalion Chief Jeremy Sanchez had called for an additional two alarms. Ultimately Los Angeles County and the Angles National Forest also called in their own alarms.
Ultimately 29 engine companies, 15 from local mutual aid agencies, 7 from the County and 7 from the National Forest responded to the fire. In addition there were 4 county hand crews and 1 additional crew from the Forest Service.
Four helicopters were also involved with one three making water drops and a fourth commander copter controlling the water drops and monitoring the other helicopters in the area, principally news vehicles. At the height of the fire more than 250 firefighters were involved.
At one point on Saturday night television news reported that with the threat to a water reservoir at the top of the hill, Monrovia’s water supply was threatened. The reservoir in question has not be in use since the 1950s. The reservoir did have a wooden roof (note the verb tense) and was the only structure severely damaged in the blaze.
According to Dover, the fast response resulted in a quick suppression of the fire. “By 4 a.m. the situation was under control and only Monrovia personnel were still on scene,” Dover said.
Members of the Monrovia Fire Department were on Norumbega on Tuesday to watch a few “hot spots” according to the Chief. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by Verdugo Fire and Monrovia Police Department.
